Snapchat For Business – Coming To The Mainstream

A year ago, or even six months ago, Snapchat was just a tiny blip on the radar of most marketers and entreprenerus. In fact, even that might be generous; many people who weren’t in Snapchat’s hyper-engaged teen and young adult demographic may not have even heard of the platform. If you aren’t even sure what Snapchat is yourself still, now’s the day to learn.

At its core, Snapchat is a mico-messaging app in which users can send photos, videos, or text notes to each other, view them for a set number of seconds, and then those messages self-destruct and are deleted.

Unsurprisingly, the app has been largely written off by older generations as a sorry excuse for a ‘sexting’ app. Those in the know, however, have caught on to the fact that Snapchat content is extremely easy to consume for users, and both the creation and the consumption of content is quick.

People like quick. Ironically, the fact that each individual message or publication can be consumed so quickly means that many young users use the app for hours on end (“I’ll just check one more message,” “I’ll just watch one more video,” etc. and the time flies by).

The best businesses are using Snapchat as the antithesis to Youtube, or Facebook, or their business properties where posts and content are more deliberate, planned, and highly edited and targeted. On Snapchat, you can literally record a video message by holding down your thumb for six seconds – there are no fancy editing tools.

This makes Snapchat the perfect platform for letting your customers and followers in on something “behind the scenes,” which is exactly what your competitors are doing. Now more than ever, consumers expect brands to be an extension of the people running them, and getting to know those people (or at least feeling like they have) can go a long way toward building brand trust and loyalty.

Even with its off-the-cuff nature, you still should put some planning into your Snapchat strategy. First, survey your customers and find out what they want to see – this is, of course, the most direct route to content that is going to connect with them.

Often times, inside hints and tricks, or just videos from around the factory/office, which might hint at company developments or new offerings that won’t be published for some time, can help your customers feel like they’re getting something exclusive. People like exclusive.

Aim to be consistent above anything else. Uploading a Snap every few hours and adding it to your ‘story’ will mean that people see you as someone who will regularly give them something interesting to look at. If you can add 3-6 Snaps to your Snapchat story per day, you’ll be on your way to consistency, at which point you can fine-tune the content down the road.

Snapchat gives you a simple tool to see how many views your updates receive as well, so you can gauge if your followers are taking the time out of their busy days to listen to what you have to say.